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Actually, i have posted a similar post in the DN forum itself - since I am still wondering should I open a new thread for this. But since, the front page has been revealed. Guess that it's time for us... to get ready and discuss over it.

This year's 36th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has confirmed on Monday that the Death Note writer/artist team of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata are launching a manga called Bakuman in the next issue, which goes on sale on August 11. The magazine describes the new manga as "explosive." (The Japanese word for "explosion" is "bakuhatsu") ~ courtesy of ANN

Wonder how the plot will be like... Explosive... hmmmm.... (I just pray that it is nothing like Ral Grado...)

Quote:

It's not easy to become and live as a mangaka, Mashiro knows that from his late uncle. At his 9th grade, while trying to keep up with reality, school and then normal job, he left his notebook with a sketch of a girl, Azuki, he likes. Tamaki, a first rate student found it and trying to convince Mashiro to draw a manga with his story. Doesn't like the idea, Mashiro tries to decline. Tamaki, however, tries to stick to dream and found out that Azuki also wants to be a voice actress and got a good reply from a production company. Tamaki, then, brought Mashiro to her house and telling her his dream.... Mashiro tells her that he will write a manga with Tamaki and will ask Azuki to voice their anime. Out of confusion, Mashiro asks her if the dreams become reality, will she marry him? She says yes, only if their dreams become true, and not otherwise!! Now, life of wannabe mangakas begun!!!

Last edited by monir; 2009-07-03 at 04:27.
Reason: thanks goes to ZODDGUTS

Could somebody post a synopsis of what the story is about? I normally don't read only the first chap of a manga. I wait until a few chaps have been released, unless I'm excited about the series or just incredibly bored, of which I am neither. I didn't see any synopsis in the places I looked.

It's not easy to become and live as a mangaka, Mashiro knows that from his late uncle. At his 9th grade, while trying to keep up with reality, school and then normal job, he left his notebook with a sketch of a girl, Azuki, he likes. Tamaki, a first rate student found it and trying to convince Mashiro to draw a manga with his story. Doesn't like the idea, Mashiro tries to decline. Tamaki, however, tries to stick to dream and found out that Azuki also wants to be a voice actress and got a good reply from a production company. Tamaki, then, brought Mashiro to her house and telling her his dream.... Mashiro tells her that he will write a manga with Tamaki and will ask Azuki to voice their anime. Out of confusion, Mashiro asks her if the dreams become reality, will she marry him? She says yes, only if their dreams become true, and not otherwise!! Now, life of wannabe mangakas begun!!!

The main character, Mashiro Moritaka, has good drawing skills and wanted to be a Mangaka when he was young. His uncle was also a mangaka, but he commited suicided because his series were canceled and he was in debts. That caused Moritaka to stop being a dreamer and try to be a normal student with no motivation. Then there's a guy in his class name Takagi who has the highest grade in the nation, he discovers Moritaka drawing skill and tells him that he needs Moritaka's skill to make the manga based off his story. Moritaka refuses, thinking about his uncle's result. Then Moritaka finds out via Takagi that the girl Moritaka likes (i forgot her name) is aiming to be a voice actor. So Moritaka and Takagi came to her house and Moritaka tells her about him decides to be a mangaka. They made a promise that when they all achieve their dreams they will marry each other. Chapter ends with Moritaka buying a Pratice Drawing Manga book.

It is a very interesting idea too. I don't see a lot of manga telling story about being a mangaka

Thanks, its sounds like it could be interesting. Though I could assume since it's in WSJ it'll get a weekly translated release, I'll still hold off on reading it for at least a few chapters to let it gain some momentum.

I really liked the first chapter, it was pretty amusing. Completely different to Death Note and I think that its a good thing as it shows the makers have versatility. Its going to be interesting to see how the plot carries on because at the moment I don't see how its going to keep up interest for too long.

It's nice for a first chapter. It seems that I'm in the minority, but while it is no Death Note, I'd say that the presentation of Tsugumi Ohba's writing style doesn't run far with the self-monologues and interaction comedy.

However, as much as I want to be optimistic about the manga's overall tone, I can't help but feel the whole twist to the romance 'marriage' angle, and how it's cynically referenced as 'shallow (( puppy )) love' along with the parallels to his failure of an uncle will bring about a more gritted end to this... like Bakuman getting canned after 10 chapters.

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Night~and~Gale: ~ The Final Mythology of the Man who Defied Destiny.The sleeping lion shall awaken beyond the depths of time, crossing ten billion lights, come to Terra.

This series went straight for serialization. No one-shot whatsoever...
A manga about writing manga... in Shonen Jump.
The characters seen interesting and believable (apart from the bishoujo, but she was barely introduced in this chapter). The main duo makes a nod to Ohba and Obata. It's as if they are writing a story about themselves.

I'm worried whether Bakuman will get canceled... Tsugumi Ohba needs to introduce some kind of conflict fast or it will not fare well in SJ... I hope he/she does not go for the "episodic day-to-day struggles of the protagonists" scenario...

yea, but actually, i guess that this manga can actually "develop" to many forms... it can not only be those "mangaka lifestory" on how to draw a manga and level up from it... taking those competitions and stuffs or getting no response or rejected from publishers... (sound like hikaru no go... to me...)

depending which way Ohba wanna go, i guess that, they can even go into those fantasy, adventurous, mysterious or whatsoever? or even "ridiculous" plot like "getting drawn" into the manga that they are making... i.e. they, themselves, playing the 'RPG form of manga' - so, Mashiro doesn't even have to draw it! walking around in the setting they have formed and out they are out of it, the "papers" will be "automatically" drawn all nicely..

The first chapter was interesting, no real idea how all of this is going to develop though. I hope we'll see the girl's struggle to become a voice actress too, and not just the two guys trying to make it into the manga world.

After reading Bakuman, the long-running question resurfaced in my head.

The long-time rumor of Tsugumi Ohba = Hiroshi Gamou.

There's been many somewhat credible hints about Gamou = Tsugumi, and in this Bakuman episode 1... the protagonist talks about his uncle who was a manga artist who despite of having terrible art-skills, got popular enough to get even anime series out of his work... only to fail later, and dissapear into obscurity. My god, that's EXACTLY the story of Gamou and his "Lucky Man" manga! Hell, the "Chou Hero Densetsu" even looks like Luckyman, crossed with Fujiko Fujio's Paaman. (Of course, Gamou-sensei didn't die, otherwise I wouldn't be comparing him)

1. Debut in monthly magazine as manga artist
2. His "Luckyman" manga, although poorly drawn, was a hit and even got animated
3. After Luckyman's sucess he tried to serialize two more manga, but both were canceled quickly, and he dissapeared from the manga world

His uncle's history is exactly the same as above, except he dies at the end.
The only explanation is:

A: Ohba really is Gamou, and using his story as a plot device
B: Ohba is aware of the rumor, and is using it for fun & to create even more confusion among the fans.

If that rumor is true, it's very interesting to see one of the best (art-wise) artist Jump has ever seen together with possibly the worst (art-wise) artist Jump has ever seen, together creating a manga about manga.

They make a great team, it's great to see them back!

Edit: On a related note, there was a boy who "claimed" to be Gamou's son, appeared in anonymous forum over 3 months ago... and posted about the (then not-yet-announced, but later confirmed) picturebook that's getting released, and also said Gamou was wanting to do a manga about "a boy who wantetd to become manga artist, and a girl who wanted to become seiyuu". I wonder if this person was Gamou/Ohba himself, really his son, or a staff member close to him.